Monday, June 8, 2009

Moments in Doctor Who that sound really expensive

With the new series apparently able to do anything (a werewolf attacks Queen Victoria, “easy”; Daleks and Cybermen fight around Canary Wharf, “no problem”; a platoon of Rhino-headed space Police march towards a hospital on the Moon,”yawn”) it's easy to forget that the original series could be a little more cash strapped and writers would sometimes find themselves writing concepts that they then had to back out of showing,

Death to the Daleks: At the start of the story the TARDIS is heading towards the planet Florana where the effervescent seas are like “warm milk,” the sand is “soft as swan's down “ and ” the air is like a magic potion.”What happens instead: The TARDIS runs out of power and lands in a quarry.

Full Circle: The Marshmen take the TARDIS to a cave and plan to push it down a 5000 metre slope where it will smash open the side of the Starliner like a battering ram.What happens instead: The Marshmen are scared off by some spiders; they later get into the Starliner through an open door.

Logopolis: With the Master's TARDIS on-board, the Doctor intends to materialise his TARDIS underwater and open the doors, literally flushing the Master out.What happens instead: The TARDIS misses the river and lands on a dock.

Time Flight: Drawn back in time millions of years a Concorde prepares to land on prehistoric Earth.What happens instead: Unbelievably, Concorde lands. Everyone spends the next three episodes milling around a rock in studio TC8 at Television Centre.

Survival: The Doctor leads Ace back to the TARDIS describing what awaits them in space. ” There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea's asleep and the rivers dream, people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do.”What happens instead: the series goes off the air for 16 years (except for 85 minutes in 1996)*

Special Bonus Moment From Blake's 7Voice From the Past: Tired and stressed, the crew of The Liberator head for Del 10," an ultra-planet, fantastic mountain scenery, and the gravity's so low you can practically fly."What happens instead: Taken over by a strange telepathic force, Blake changes course.

*However we do get to see a sky burning in The Poison Sky and the city made of smog sounds a bit like New Earth in Gridlock; maybe the BBC used that time to save up some cash.